Anyone who has worked in the gaming industry can attest to the loads and loads of overtime that is racked up during the development of a video game. One developer, however, is preaching to the community that enough is enough.

At the Game Developer Conference this week, Chris Taylor, developer of Supreme Commander, denounced the industry practice of excessive overtime. Speaking about his own experience at his Gas Powered Games Studios, Taylor said:

We would have made a worse game [Supreme Commander] if we had worked 14 hours a day. Dungeon Siege would have been a better game if we worked the way we did on Supreme Commander. It's just the right way to work, and it puts fun back in the business.

Comparing his business strategy to other companies, Taylor cited one of his employee who clocked over 1,000 hours in overtime at a previous company in just one year's time. He was gratified to point out to the crowd that the same employee has worked for Gas Powered Games Studios for over two years and has only worked 150 hours of overtime.

Taylor continued:

You make better games when you work regular hours. You're more creative–when you go home at night you're still thinking, because you're creative people. So when you get back at the computer, you have all these ideas and you get them down anyway. So we didn't put a bunch of stuff in our office that would make people think that they should work there until late. We don't want people to live in the office at Gas Powered Games.

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. A fresh perspective gained from personal time and a good night's sleep yields better creativity than beating a problem to death under the fluorescent lights of an office cubicle. The question is, Will the gaming industry listen to what Chris Taylor is preaching?

Money talks…(1:56pm EST Fri Mar 09 2007)The workplace was a suit and tie environment until Apple and similar 'dress-down' shops appears on the scene and were wildly profitable. Employees who were good left the old-school businesses in droves and sought careers with companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, ect.

Other companies watched their brightest and most talented leave and some actually got a clue. Others faded into oblivion. This is the way business works.

If Taylor's schemes are profitable they will catch on. If not, his will be a lone voice in the wilderness.

Business has neither a heart, nor a soul. - by Hodar

If this is such a norm(1:59pm EST Mon Mar 12 2007)To me it seems that these developing companies are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either you hire and let go a lot of temp coders, or you work lots of OT, or you hire more full timers…

I can tell you that working 14 hour days is nothing new to any industry..Hell talk to any engineer (not software engineer) and you will find a 60+ hour week is norm along with being called night and day to respond to process upsets…and they only get paided for 40 hours. This is the American workplace live with it…

As for Taylor's words, How does he know the game would have been worse with more OT, fact is he does not, nor does he probably work any OT…Companies will only listen to his words if it decreases the payroll and looks good in the public's eyes…

So lets look at it from our options…hiring more full timers increases the payroll more then the current ones working OT so that paradigm wont fly, and hiring and letting go of lots of temps always looks bad to the public mainly due to lack of good health coverage and retirement so that wont fly…guess they should keep working lots of OT.. - by asdfasdfasd